B  V  A Wanted to provide an update to what was originally called – Office 365 Demo Provisioning Toolkit – See original post here The team recently upgraded the original toolkit to now be part of the Microsoft Experience Center or MEC - Please...

For those of you who have seen my posts in the past, you may already have some idea that I’m a nerd and I love technology. And just to confirm your first impressions, my nerd quotient rises when technology works the way it’s supposed to. Recently my nerd...

Josh Condie – The Online Services Partner Update Newsletter is a great resource for the evolving world of resources (demo environments, pre-sales, etc.), programs and support for both new and mature Microsoft Online Services partners.  I highly encourage...

Rob Waggoner I get this question pretty often when I talk about the benefits of Open Value. Open Value provides ongoing benefits that go far beyond just the software license.  Check out my video where I talk about the additional benefits our customers...

B  V  A Just because you are using Virtualization technologies, does not mean you have a private cloud.  I have been speaking about Pro-active Management for several years, and now as we move into the “Cloud World” we start to hear certain...

Q: (from Geoff) Does Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Developer Edition deliver the same functionality as Standard, Business Intelligence, or Enterprise edition?   A: From: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144275.aspx “SQL Server 2012 Developer...

Q: (from Matt) A client is asking about Microsoft Search Server Express and it’s something I’m not too familiar with.  I’ve done a little bit of research but it looks like this product is designed for mid-large companies (total data at the client...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- As Microsoft Partners, you are tasked with not only knowing about Microsoft technologies but also some of our competitors’ solutions. That’s a lot to know! When your customers ask you to tell them “Why...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- This is really cool stuff! I’ve been a big proponent of our Ready-To-Go campaigns… FREE and CUSTOMIZABLE marketing materials for you to use with your customers!?  Seriously?  Yes. Seriously....

Josh Condie – Yesterday, Microsoft announced Office 365 for Government.  This represents a great opportunity for our SMB partner community, especially at the local and regional government level.  Small State and Local Government entities are...

Woody Walton Hot off the press! Windows 8 Release Preview is now available! Check out Windows News room at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/windows/Default.aspx ! You can read Steven Sinofsky's blog post at http://blogs...

Woody Walton I have had a few blog posts in the past around Lync and the opportunity it represents. Specifically, in November I posted on the Lync Appliances as a way to get into the market without needing a lot of technical acumen initially. You...

Woody Walton From time to time I get a question from a partner on SPLA licensing. With the Service Provider License Agreement, or SPLA, service providers and ISVs can license Microsoft products on a monthly basis, during a three-year agreement term...

B  V  A I was recently out looking for the update to the Systems Management and Virtualization merge on the Microsoft Sales Specialist site, and ran across the new Windows Intune Sales Specialist Accreditation: “The Windows Intune accreditation...

  By Ron Grattopp …..My teammate BVA recently did a post on the new Windows Intune Sales Specialist accreditation , and he included some links to the Partner Learning Center (PLC), where you can find lots of training around almost any Microsoft technology...

  Woody Walton   Okay, so I usually know when a great resource comes around that is perfect for partners and relates to one our chief solution offerings, Microsoft Office 365 .  It seems I missed one.   I asked around and it seems...

  By Ron Grattopp …..As you know, TS2 travels a LOT.  Of course, in my travels I see many folks using business laptops, and even though we all know that Windows 7 is rapidly gaining momentum I still see a significant number of laptops running...

Join us on Friday, May 18, at 10:00 AM Central Time May's Agenda will include: Central Region Highlights and Insights WPC — the latest information to help you know what's happening with WPC2012 5 Reasons to Pick Office 365 Over Google Office 365 User...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- Please let them know that this is not possible. As you probably know, Office 2010 can be purchased a few ways: PKC, FPP, OEM, or VL…. Do you know what all of those letters mean?  Do your customers...

B  V  A Hopefully you are aware Microsoft, based on feedback from many partners, changed the Virtualization and Systems Management individual competencies into one competency starting in May 2012.  For more information check out this post...

For those of you who have seen my posts in the past, you may already have some idea that I’m a nerd and I love technology. And just to confirm your first impressions, my nerd quotient rises when technology is used in new and interesting ways. Over the...

Rob Waggoner   Q: (from Stuart) Is App-V OS independent?  By this, I mean can you run applications that are incompatible with Windows 7 by using App-V on a Windows 7 workstation? A:  No, App-V does not provide any OS compatibility assistance...

Woody Walton   Hello All! I wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow culminates the our 4 part webinar Series, Expand Your Cloud Practice. As you have guess from the title of the post the forth and final installment is About SharePoint Online and...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- As Microsoft Partners, many of you are familiar with selling our core solutions, but you may have run across a few instances where your customers were looking for a CRM or ERP solution.  You were...

B  V  A Ron Grattopp, one of my TS2 teammates recently did a great blog post on all the Microsoft Cloud resources and where they currently exist out in the Microsoft World, it reminded me of a recent publication I ran across while prepping for...